Eh. Look at the byline. Before we can take this piece seriously we should know if Monica Grenfell ever won a beauty pageant. I'm betting the answer's no, and I'm betting that has something to do with the article.

dbp said..."Beauty pagents don't and shouldn't just be based on God-given virtues."

Ex vi termini, it's hard to see how they could be about anything else. You can work on your figure, but short of radical plastic surgery, God either gave you beauty or he beat you with the ugly stick. Not much to be done about it. And for that matter, when was it decided that this woman had an unhealthy figure? Is "unhealthy" now coextensive with "athletic"? Y'all do know that size sixteen doesn't mean the same thing in England that it does here, right?

Grenfell writes that "[i]t would send an appalling - and very dangerous - message to other young women that it's OK to be fat," which in a society obsessed with thin to the point of anorexia seems precisely the message that ought to be sent - that it's okay not to be thin. The real issue here is that if women realize that they don't have to starve themselves to be attractive, the jig is up for parasites like Grenfell.

Having some experience in the issues woman face regarding body image and size, it would be a great thing if a more "normal" sized woman competed and won some of these contests. The average woman in the United States is somewhere between a 10 to 14 and that is not "fat." The guys who complain the most about "fat" chicks are the losers who can't get a date so they have to denigrate a woman because she's too "fat" or too "dumb' or too "trashy" or some other bullshit. A healthy sized and happy woman is a joy to behold and much to be preferred to a laxative guzzling cell phone tossing harpy who really needs a plate of pasta to calm the fuck down. By all means bone all the skinny knife edged shoulder bladed skanks you want, you can leave the fully upholstered plush rides to those of us who know what to do with a real woman. You can just fuck a boy with tits. Good luck to you sir.

Simon,Grenfell, by her own admission, is a nutritionist and a former beauty contest judge. Which probably accounts for her screed. After reading her rant, I have to see if there is a photo of her somewhere. I wonder if she is one of those POW looking vegans.

She is fat. While she may physically handle that much weight at age 17, as she ages she will be more prone to joint problems and osteoarthritis, diabetes, heart problems , etc. BTW, she looks larger than a size 16.

Bearbee, if you can't see that she is one beautiful woman, than man I feel sorry for you. Just imagine slathering that ripe luscious body in oils and slowly and languorous licking from stem to stern as you wallow in the delights of the flesh. It's is the feminine ideal since the days of the cave dwellers through the Renaissance to the right thinkin' boulevardiers of the current day. That's why it's called sins of the flesh not sins of the skin and bones.

A victory by Chloe Marshall would say to the girls of England: Eat what you want, excercise--or not, if you don't feel like it. It would take what little demand there is for self-control out of the contest. Just roll-out of bed and show-up for your well deserved glory.

I don't know how it is determined that society is obsessed with thinness. My eyes tell me this isn't so. At least we are not so obsessed that any effort is made in the direction of diet and excercise. Whim, might be a better description than obsession. I think of obsession as a strongly motivating desire. I am not seeing a lot of motivation out there.

Ugh...really didn't need to see that this early in the morning. Whales belong in the ocean.

But, being an optimist, I tend to look on the bright side. Seeing that sack of suet has probably destroyed more than one person's appetite this morning, and may even serve as a horrible example to young girls of what can happen to them if they buy the PC "fat is fashinable" BS.

In fact, I think Grenfell may have it backwards--I suspect the more publicity this cetacean gets, the more people will be inspired to stick to their diets. I know I'll be eating less today.

There's plump, there's fat, and there's morbidly obese. I'm inclined to agree on the first two, but there are people who are so incredibly and obviously unhealthily overweight that it is worthy of comment. But this girl doesn't seem to fall into that extraordinary category.

dbp said..."A victory by Chloe Marshall would say to the girls of England: Eat what you want, excercise--or not, if you don't feel like it."

Exactly. And given that Grenfell is in the business of leeching off women who think that they can't eat what they want and must exercise whether they feel like it or not, it's not hard to see why she dashed off this panicky memo. As MCG well put it above, "Grenfell has several books out on dieting, fitness, getting into jeans, and all that kind of stuff. I guess having a 'fat' girl as a beauty queen would damage her book sales." Or more bluntly, it would reveal Grenfell and people like her as the evil and superfluous parasites they are.

People tend to stabilize at a given weight, so the worry about her getting heavier with age is unnecessary,...

As women age hormone levels decrease and a stable weight level is more difficult to maintain. Muscle mass is lost. The body metabolizes at a different rate. If she has children, weight gained will be difficult to shed.

It is true that Monica Grenfell has an interest in there being people who are heavier than they want to be. Everybody becoming thin would destroy her career just as much as everyone ceasing to care how fat they are. I see the latter as being much more likely since it is easier to not care than it is to resist urges.

“You are beautiful, just as you are." Is a great prescription for never improving.

It's all about what you consider an improvement. She looks like a normal lovely, sexy woman and doesn't need to improve to an emaciated stick figure with saline balloons stuffed into her skin. The fashion and health police have always declared war against normal looking people because of their bitter twisted lives. They should eat their carrot sticks and drink their carrot juice and turn into orange hued husks and leave lovely young lassies alone to bounce merrily through life bring joy to those of us who can appreciate the joys of feminine pulchritude.

"I am not suggesting that she emaciate herself. There is a happy place between emaciated and fat."

And that right were she is at dude. Seriously if you think she is really fat we are really dealing with a different set of rules here. Her body type is the norm for most of what most of the world would consider a healthy human being. Someone mentioned that a woman gains some weight after giving birth. Of course, that's what nature intended so the mother could be healthy enough to nurse and nurture her children. Mother Nature didn't intend for a mother to put on Nikes, get her ipod and start running so she could be as dry as Nicole Ritchie while she drops her rug rat off with the comfortably padded third world nanny. Trust Mother Nature, she is a size 16.

Sins of the skin and bones...Fully upholstered...I am ROFLMAO thank you thank you guys for speaking truth to power! :-)

I have been big and I have been small, and it took me a few years into adulthood to realize that men cannot resist curves. Women who haven't realized this yet are still doing starvation contests between each other, and saying "I'm so fat" like a teenager. (I don't have any chicks like that in my mommy posse).

I like having power over men, but its all good because I use it wisely and benevolently. I will stay a size 12 because the worst thing in the world is for a woman to not have a butt.

However, I must say that the REALLY big girls go to far, and the reason they are so big is because they have "issues", which act like man-repellent. At that point, men run away because of the crazy more than the fat.

Last point- never trust a nutritionist. They do not practice science according to any scientific method I ever learned. They should be thrown in jail for the advice they give to diabetics, which worsens their condition. They tell them to go lo-cal and lo-fat, so they end up stuffing carbs into those poor unfortunate diabetics who don't have heart disease yet, but have been put on a heart-disease diet like putting the proverbial cart in front the proverbial horse.

"The political correct progressive socialists want to rule the world. You will not enjoy youreslf by doing what you want."

Nope. In my experience it's often leftists who are the most virulently anti-fat. But of course, the other end of the spectrum is exactly the same: the moralistic busybodies on the right are just as censorious, grim and joyless as the moralistic busybodies on the left.

I want to see someone without that cute delicate nosebridge win the contest. You can fix, cheeks, lips, eyes, etc with makeup, but you can't hide the nose.

And until women stop harping on their own and each other insecurities, this issue isn't about fat or skinny. It's about I wanna prove I am beautiful and there are enough hefty people out there to jump on my bandwagon.

Girls with big noses. I am proud to be in the Markéta Irglová camp cause it seems like the only thing she wants to prove is she can be herself independently.

Its not your god-given physical attributes make you attractive or not attractive. Its how you carry yourself. There are many women who are nothing special in terms of genetically perfect faces etc., but they have inner beauty which can overcome an unfortunate feature on the face.

Hillary Clinton could be a great beauty - because there is nothing physically wrong with her face. She is ugly on the inside, which makes her appearance seem hideous. If she changed her heart, people would stop mocking her breasticles and cankles.

I really don't mind women being fat (except insofar as they block my view of the attractive thin women behind them.) It's when they start telling me that I should find them attractive that I get annoyed. Sorry, chubby, it just doesn't work that way.

Being president isn't a beauty contest. And if it was about inner beauty or shining love, well, Jesus would have wanted to be a statesmen. Maybe the world history would have been written differently if he had.

I give skinny-women-loving guys the benefit of the doubt that they aren't misogynists, control freaks, or closet gays, but they need to accept that its a tiny minority of men who think Angelina Jolie has a great body.

I agree that Grenfell is shrill and irritating in her article. But she has a point. Obesity is probably a bigger public health problem for young women these days than anorexia. And Chloe's weight does put her at risk for health problems later in life.

The fat is fabulous meme is basically a backlash to the fashion industry's extreme focus on rail-thin models. When culture tells a girl like Chloe that she had to drop down to a size 2 to be beautiful, it's no wonder that she rejects that impossible struggle and proclaims the beauty of curves.

But what everyone forgets is that you can be curvy at size 8 or 10 or 12 without putting yourself at risk for diabetes or heart problems.

What we really need to change is the food industry's tendency to infuse everything we eat with high fructose corn syrup. That's what makes eating healthy seem so draconian.

No problem Nels. I can't believe that anyone would diss the lovely Chloe Marshall. Can't you just see yourself oiling her up and sliding all around those delicious curves until you slide into home plate? I mean some guys want to get on their 10 speed bikes with their one pants leg tied up and their little helmets and rolled up copy of the NY Times and the biodegradable shopping bag filled with tofu and bean sprouts so they get home in time for the PBS pledge drive concert with Pete Seegar. And then there are guys like us who want to climb into a Caddy with plush seats, listening to Sinatra as we go for a oh so comfortable ride that smoothes all the bumps so nicely as we get where want to go. Carry on brother.

By the way, I hope you told half-pint to go ahead and have some candy cause she was way too skinny.

"In the end, everyone single one of us will die. Some of us will be more likely to die as assholes than others."Love that observation, Reader!I am with those that prefer a lady to be more Reubenesque than Twiggy (oops--dated myself badly). It isnt necessarily the size of the lady that scares me off: its the number of relationship/self-improvement/body image/codependency etc books on her bookshelf.

And "fine as you are" is absolutely a good message to tell girls. It's certainly better than, "I'm so ugly I should lose weight but what if I lose all that weight and I'm *still* ugly?" Oh, trust me. That ones a sure winner. Or how about, "Anything I try on makes me look fat so I won't buy anything decent to wear until I lose 40 pounds. It doesn't matter if I wear rags because I'm going to look ugly no matter what." That's a winner, too.

Feeling good about your body is the *best* place to be if self-improvement is going to happen. Can't fail, you know. If you know you're beautiful then you know you'll be beautiful 10 or 20 pounds lighter or if you jog or exercise you'll still be beautiful. Having known girls who *stopped* jogging because it made their thighs larger, I assure anyone that this is a concern. Fat upper arms? Same thing. If you're short it takes almost nothing to thicken those upper arms.

The author picking on Chloe is just the sort that has set us girls up for failure only *she* does it with fancy titles and claims it's for our health instead of passively through entertainment and stick models.

There’s nothing worse than when a skinny mother comes in with her “fat” daughter. The mom is nothing but critical, “That looks terrible.” “You shouldn’t wear that, you need something to cover you up.” “I hate shopping with you, why can’t you lose weight and look like your sister.” My wife will go into the dressing room with the girl and often she will be quietly crying. Sometimes these are just high school girls. Then I step in and distract the cunt of a mom with jokes or slight of hand or anything else that will keep me from kicking her in the twat out onto the street. We try to let the girl know that maybe she will lose weight or maybe not, but she can still find real clothes that fit and that are stylish and she can look good now, not in a year from now. You can always look good and feel good about yourself. It just takes a little work. It’s the people who give up and don’t care about their appearance at all that are the stereotypes that all the assholes enjoy mocking. Chloe is a beauty and needs not take a back seat to anyone.

My mom saved my baby cards. I read them recently. Here's one of the comments from a friend?

"WOW What a amazon!"

That is what was written. Others for sure thought it. I was 10 lbs 5 oz.

In first grade I was normal size, always the tallest but I never thought of myself as overweight. People now who are overweight in the psychology department want me to believe I have an image problem of myself because I have a real tight zone of weight limits that I try so hard not to let myself get out of.

.Amazon thighs. yep, and I see them as an asset.

Is Your Dog Fat?from HealthyPetNet

Obesity is one of the greatest health concerns facing our pets. Overweight dogs may live shorter and less healthy lives and your enjoyment of their precious companionship my be shortened because of it. You can and should do something about it.

Carrying extra weight puts an extra burden on bones and joints, and can make arthritis problems worse. Overweight dogs can be uncomfortable and less able to play and exercise. Their bodies may be less able to resist infections, and they may be at greater risk for problems during surgery and anesthesia.

How can I tell if my dog is overweight?

A quick way to check if your dog is overweight is to feel his ribs with the flat of your hand. If you can only feel the ribs with difficulty, your dog probably needs to lose weight.

While I think she's lovely, I also think Angelina Jolie has a great body--or at least in those instances where she's shown it. Or say, Catherine Zeta Jones, who is no stick figure. America Ferrara.

You know, it's pretty much all good. The thing that cracks me up is that, for most of human history, it seems to be the skinny girl who gets trashed for being underweight and now that we've entered a period where skinnier is supposed to be sexier--they're still getting trashed by their "big-boned" sisters.

There is "too skinny" and there is "too fat". There are some women (e.g., Theresa Russell and Rebecca De Mornay) who look great within a 20-30 pound range.

You want to have a well-defined jaw line if you go for the heavier, otherwise the weight goes right to your chin. That's not good (mail or female).

Health-wise, yeah, being overweight makes you more inclined to get a number of diseases, but being skinny seems to mean that when you do get sick, you're way more likely to die from it.

That article says she is 5'10". I am 5'6" and a similar size though I have recently lost 40 lbs. Chloe probably weighs 240lbs minimum. THAT IS NOT HEALTHY. Her calves look like they are twice the size mine were at their heaviest. If she doesn't lose weight, she'll probably end up morbidly obese.

The question is whether a "fat" girl- one who is not below 110 pounds can win a beauty pageant. Based on today's standards, I think the answer to this is no. I applaud the attempts to change the stick figure because it is simply not healthy and not a representation of reality. Chloe admitted she overeats which is not healthy either. The pageant is judging on beauty- it is a beauty pageant- and this means on the inside and out. It depends on the judges and their definition of beauty. I personally do not think a 100 pound girl or a 300 pound girl is a healthy person. I do not think Chloe winning will change the standard of beauty, but it will definitely stir up chatter and discussion. This would affect the notions of beauty but I do not think it helps the obesity problem, as Miss England.

I see a lot of discussion about how this girl should just lose weight, or how this will make people think that being overweight is ok. How many people do you know who lost over 50 lbs and kept it off for more than a year? How many people do you know who said to themselves, "yes, I think I'd like to be fat!" "I love having to shop in special stores and have people criticize what I eat" There really is plenty of incentive for people to lose weight. (Just as there is plenty of incentive to be rich, or tall, or white, or straight- It's much easier to be part of the dominant and chosen class) This isn't as easy as it seems. Maybe she won't win, but somehow she got this far, so she should be allowed to compete. And everyone else should take a look at the way they judge the character and personality of people who are overweight. It's ok to be fat, just like it's OK to be short, or tall, or have a bad heart. Further, weight may be an indicator of health, but it isn't as great an indicator as you might think. Those of you who find allowing fat people to be happy with themselves so disconcerting, might think about how you would feel if everyone thought that you were ugly, and that they should let you know it. "It's ok to think your ok, but just so you know, I think your ugly and a lazy person, based on your nose. "

I find the world-wide anti “obesity” hysteria increasingly disturbing. Certainly there are some people whose overweight is due to laziness and gluttony, but the truth is that most so-called “obese” people eat no more than their “normal” sized counterparts, and have the same level of physical activity. It is disgraceful how the media ridicules and insults those who don’t meet their stick-thin ideal.

I suspect that this is yet another attempt at seizing power over people’s personal lives and choices. Much of what passes for nutritional science is extremely flawed and there are virtually no diet or exercise programs that have proven successful for maintaining long-term weight loss. In extreme cases government entities have threatened to take children away from their parents because of the children’s overweight.

Check out the junk food science blog which debunks a lot of the anti-obesity craze.

I disagree. Though there is more you can do to be thin than to be tall many studies indicate that it is highly unusual to lose weight and keep it off, even while conforming with a diet and exercise plan. Additionally, losing weight is very difficult. Many people have to work out for an hour or more a day and eat at near anorexic levels to lose weight, then keep those standards to maintain it. I know I'd rather be around a fat, full, happy person than a hungry, tired, busy, thin person.

Why is it that we have to take everything to extremes? First, I don't believe that the majority of Miss UK or Miss America or even America's Next Top Model girls are necessarily unhealthy or even underweight. Many of them eat healthy and exercise regularly which is a good thing. Others just have great genetics. And even if we assume that all of them ARE underweight, it does not make it okay to give the alternate role model of an overweight girl. Why can't it just be a regular, HEALTHY woman? While it's unfortunate that overweight girls may have low self-esteem, we should not be teaching them that their body size is normal and acceptable and something to aspire to. Obesity is an epidemic and this is NOT the way to combat it.